Veteran police officer blasts Sgt. Goodwin

Will beneficiary disputes Connors' account of his visits to Webber's home

Primary beneficiary of the late Geraldine Webber's $2.7 million estate, Portsmouth Police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin visited Webber's home in an unmarked police cruiser "hundreds of times" before she died, said John Connors, Webber's next-door neighbor and a 42-year member of the Portsmouth Police Department.

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By Elizabeth Dinan

seacoastonline.com

By Elizabeth Dinan

Posted Aug. 3, 2014 at 2:00 AM
Updated Aug 3, 2014 at 11:33 AM

By Elizabeth Dinan

Posted Aug. 3, 2014 at 2:00 AM
Updated Aug 3, 2014 at 11:33 AM

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Primary beneficiary of the late Geraldine Webber's $2.7 million estate, Portsmouth Police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin visited Webber's home in an unmarked police cruiser "hundreds of times" before she died, said John Connors, Webber's next-door neighbor and a 42-year member of the Portsmouth Police Department.

From several large windows in his Shaw Road home, Connors watched Goodwin drive a cruiser down Webber's 250-foot driveway to visit her on a near-daily basis, for more than a year, Connors said. Sometimes Goodwin would show up more than once a day and on occasion he would drive his personal vehicle, Connors said.

But "99 percent of the time," for more than a year, Connors said, Goodwin would visit Webber in a police cruiser.

To be sure Goodwin knew he was watching, Connors said, he'd sometimes take photos of him, while other times he would grab his dogs and go outside.

"I wasn't being nosy," Connors said. "I was watching a crime as far as I was concerned."

Connors agrees with multiple remaining parties who contest Webber's last will and trust, based on allegations that she was unduly influenced by Goodwin while she was impaired by dementia. Goodwin has consistently denied the allegations.

A police veteran who still works as a Portsmouth auxiliary officer, Connors said his family has known Webber's family for two generations. He said he found his home next to Webber's because she gave him notice before it went on the market in 2001.

His only involvement in Webber's estate, Connors said, was once being asked by her about her wanting to leave money to the Portsmouth police and fire departments. Connors said he advised her that she could designate the bequest as for equipment only and she took that advice, he said.

Probate court records show Connors was never one of Webber's beneficiaries, though he said she suggested leaving him money and he told her no.

Connors said Webber began to "change mentally" in 2005, when her requests for his help began to increase. She'd have trouble with her television, needed help with "little things around the house" and occasionally needed to be picked up off a floor after falling, he said.

Webber also crashed her car a few times and had a fire in her chimney that she was willing to ignore because she wanted to get to a bingo game, he said.

By mid-2010, according to Connors, Webber "started worrying and wondering about prowlers and started getting scared living by herself."

He said she also let everyone know she kept large amounts of cash in her house, "almost to where she was bragging about it." Webber kept an inches-thick stack of hundred dollar bills in a silverware drawer and wads of cash in a boot, he said.

In September of 2010, Connors said, he went to work at the Portsmouth police station and was told that Webber had reported a prowler the prior night. Connors said he told his fellow officers Webber "was crazy and was not all there."

Starting the next day, he said, Goodwin's visits to her home, in a police cruiser, began. Less than two weeks later, he said, he was in his yard when Webber backed her Cadillac up her driveway to get her mail and yelled to him that she was "madly in love" and was going to marry Goodwin.

Connors said he called Portsmouth attorney Jim Ritzo, Webber's longtime attorney, and told him, "We have a problem." He said he also told multiple city officials that he was suspicious of Goodwin's motives for visiting his elderly neighbor who had lots of cash and assets.

"I'm down here, knowing that lady and the condition she was in," he said. "I was obligated to do something, but I felt like no one believed me."

Goodwin has made public two documents proving that the state investigated allegations that he exploited an elderly person and concluded the complaints were unfounded, based on available evidence.

"That threw a lot of weight around town," Connors said.

But, he added, no one from the state ever talked to him, his wife, his neighbors, Webber's grandson or Goodwin's colleagues. Connors said he knows that because he's talked to those people.

Most of the city's police officers, he said, think Goodwin's frequent visits to Webber and his subsequent inheritance is "wrong."

"If this was community service, why doesn't he give it all back?" Connors asked. "What would you do if that was your grandmother? Wouldn't you want someone looking after her?"

Police Chief Stephen DuBois said in November of 2012 that complaints about Goodwin generally concerned "off-duty personal issues which do not involve the Portsmouth Police Department." He said because there was "minimum on-duty contact" between Goodwin and Webber, the department conducted "a thorough investigation" and was "convinced there was no violation of law or departmental regulations committed by the officer involved."

Last week, the police chief called Connors' observations of Goodwin's "hundreds" of visits to Webber in a police cruiser "a piece of the bigger puzzle."

"We are familiar with John Connors' information; he was given direction on who to bring it to. We trust that he has done that, as he was advised to do a while ago," DuBois said. "Based on the nature of this case, and the nature of the allegations, and the potential of the P.D. to be a beneficiary, it was decided early on that new information should be brought to the attention of city legal."

DuBois also reminded that earlier this week Police Commission Chairman John Golumb announced that after the probate dispute involving Webber's estate is settled by agreement or trial, the Police Commission will authorize an independent review "of the events and decisions that were made, which have given rise to concerns both internally and externally."

"The independent review will investigate and analyze all of the factual information it can acquire," DuBois said.

A tentative agreement was struck Monday among some of the parties involved in Webber's contested estate, which would give Goodwin a reduced $425,000 inheritance and pay the city police and fire departments 25 percent each of the balance, after Webber's house is sold.

Attorney Lisa Bellanti, who represents Webber's disabled grandson and only heir, did not endorse Monday's agreement. The grandson, Brett Webber, was excluded from Webber's last will and trust and is named in the settlement agreement as a $25,000 beneficiary.

Also not part of Monday's settlement agreement are Portsmouth attorney Paul McEachern's four clients. McEachern said he'll continue to subpoena witnesses and that his four clients are opposed to the out-of-court deal.

The settlement agreement must be approved by a probate court judge, the police and fire commissions and the City Council. If not, the case goes to trial.